What happened shortly after the United States and North Vietnam signed a peace accord?

The accords called for a cease-fire and the U.S. pledged to remove forces from South Vietnam within 60 days.

On this day in 1973, officials from the United States and North Vietnam signed a treaty at the Majestic Hotel in Paris, formally ending U.S. participation in a war that had created deep political divisions in American society, fueled by a dozen years of U.S. involvement in this Cold War battleground.

The adversaries first entered into peace negotiations in 1968. In that tumultuous year, Republican Richard Nixon wrested the presidency from the Democrats, in large part because of his promise to find a way to “peace with honor” in Vietnam. Four years later, after the deaths of thousands more U.S. service members, South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong fighters, hopes rose that the struggle over power in Vietnam had finally come to a close.

The accords called for a cease-fire. The United States pledged to remove its military forces from South Vietnam within 60 days. For their part, the North Vietnamese promised to return all U.S. prisoners of war in the same 60-day framework. The nearly 150,000 North Vietnamese troops then in South Vietnam would remain after the cease-fire.

Separately, the political terms called for reunification of the country through “peaceful means on the basis of discussions and agreements between North and South Vietnam.” Washington agreed to “contribute to healing the wounds of war and to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam [North Vietnam] and throughout Indochina.”

In practice, the accords did little to change the military and political situation on the ground. Almost immediately, the cease-fire collapsed, triggering accusations of bad faith from both sides.

In 1975, Hanoi launched a military offensive that crushed the South Vietnamese forces and reunified Vietnam under Communist rule.

SOURCE: “VIETNAM: A HISTORY,” BY STANLEY KARNOW (1983)

After nearly eight years of fighting and more than four years of negotiations, much of them in secret, talks in Paris finally yielded results. Late in 1972, the North Vietnamese government officially agreed to the terms of the Paris Peace Accords. There would be an immediate cease-fire, armies from both countries would hold their positions, U.S. troops would withdraw in 60 days and the South Vietnamese government would start negotiations with the Viet Cong for free and democratic elections with the eventual goal of reunifying Vietnam. 

"And I saw on the news territory that I've seen people die to obtain for the United States so the VC don't get it now being turned over to the VC by our government. And that was very disheartening. That was kind of a low shot to the gut, if you will, in seeing those things."

South Vietnamese troops were given control of their own fate. On January 28, 1973 withdrawal of U.S. combat troops began and by March all but advisors and Marine guards returned to America. 

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